We started our advent series by reminding ourselves that this year we wait:

I strongly believe that this Advent season has the potential to be very significant. Why? Because we’re actually waiting for something. This is America. We don’t wait for anything. If we need or want it, we buy it. Long gone are the days of “Please allow 4 weeks for delivery.” Stuff we order comes in a day or two.

HOWEVER, this year we wait…for relief from COVID. We’re chafing against lockdowns and isolation. The neighborhood Jesus moved into was waiting, too. Jews were in permanent lockdown under brutal Roman rule.

So for the first time I can remember, ALL of us are waiting…in hope. It’s a good way to start the Advent season. Journey with me. (Ewellogy, November 29)

And now, a month later, we have two approved vaccines against COVID. Like Jesus’ coming, and like we wrote about yesterday, the vaccine is a beachhead. We’re not cured. Distribution takes time as does “herd immunity. But the day is coming when COVID’s rule will be over.

Jesus invaded as a baby, grew up, trained some followers, and left them to continue the movement. In less than 300 years, Jesus followers comprised half the Roman Empire, and, as Andy Stanley has pointed out, every building in Rome–the city that was headquarters of the brutal regime that persecuted Christians, executing Peter and Paul–every building in that city now has a cross on it. Don’t underestimate the power of a beachhead, and the power of small beginnings. And continue to pray:

Manifest your Kingdom on earth. (Luke 11.2, TPT)

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3.8, NKJV)